Pig stock in Austria and Germany: alarming numbers!

Pig stock in Austria and Germany: alarming numbers!

Oberösterreich, Österreich - Pig keeping in Austria and Germany is currently showing alarming trends. As of December 1, 2024, a total of 2.53 million pigs in the stables were counted in Austria, which corresponds to a slight increase of 0.7 percent compared to the previous year. Interestingly, 94 percent of these animals are kept in the federal states of Upper Austria, Lower Austria and Styria. Nevertheless, the number of pigs stopped at 16,600, which represents a decline of 6.5 percent, reports noen.at .

strong decline in Germany

The situation in Germany is even more serious. The Federal Statistical Office has corrected the number of pigs upwards in the last counts. Finally, 20.95 million pigs were counted, but compared to the previous year, this means a decline by terrifying 1.39 million animals or 6.2 percent. This shows that pig farming in Germany has reached a historical low, as reported toennies-agrarblog.de . The number of companies, which has now dropped to 16,200, is particularly worrying, which has corresponded to a decline of 9.3 percent since May 2022. In comparison, there were 19,800 companies at the same time in 2021.

The reasons for this development are diverse. The pig farmers complain about the lack of planning security and lack of perspectives, which leads to growing uncertainty in the industry. These factors have contributed to the fact that the Borchert Commission, which was considered a hope for a sustainable transformation of agriculture, has been dissolved for precisely these reasons. This increases the crisis in pig farming and makes the future of the industry appear in an insecure light.